The Show
by MaximusWritings
Summary: Octavia and Vinyl were always best friends, way before the Show began, so are their secret feelings for each other entirely unwarranted, especially in these Dark Times? (Rated M for Violence and Gore)
1. The Start of the Show

**Prologue**

Octavia sighed and turned from the locked bathroom door, which was currently occupied by the brown earth pony's loud, obnoxious roommate, Vinyl Scratch. Octavia had yelled for Vinyl to hurry up and finish with the restroom, that she had a concert in an hour and needed to get ready. Vinyl had just hollered back, "Sorry, can't hear you over these _massive_ wubs!"

Tavi did the best she could to brush her mane and tail without a mirror, irritable and tense. The concert wasn't irregular in itself, just a small performance, she wasn't even the main performer in the show. No, it wasn't the show that was different, it was the guests.

Octavia would be performing for the four Princesses of Equestria.

Vinyl burst from the bathroom, her blue hair soaked from the shower and her fur ruffled from where she had hurriedly dried it, "Tavi, the bathroom's yours!"

"Thank you, Vinyl," Octavia stood and smiled at the white unicorn before trotting into the restroom and closing the door behind her. She wondered for the millionth time how she had ended up sharing a flat with the most loud, uncouth, rambunctious pony in all of Ponyville, maybe all of Equestria, and, for the millionth time, she responded to herself with a smile, "Because she's my utter opposite, my other half, and my best friend." Octavia sighed huffily and finished prepping for the concert, brushing her hair properly and straightening her bowtie. She couldn't distract herself with thoughts of Vinyl on such an important day, and she always felt a twinge of guilt for fancying her absolutely-not-a-fillyfooler flatmate.

"Forget it, Tavi," the earth pony scolded herself, trotting from the bathroom and getting her cello, carefully carrying it out of the flat doors and hailing a cab, "Today's a very big day and you really do need to focus."

* * *

Vinyl watched from the small kitchen as Tavi ran from the flat and booked it to her concert. A smile played on the unicorn's lips as she trotted out the door, levitating a small box, and into the busy streets. She hailed a cab and gave them the address of Octavia's concert. Vinyl kept her magic wrapped in tight tendrils around the little gift, done up in a neat little bow, with a small tag that read _For My Dearest, Tavi~._

Octavia had always scoffed at the idea of Vinyl being romantic, but since a few weeks ago when Vinyl had heard her roommate muttering about Vinyl in her sleep, and that had given Vinyl hope that maybe her crush on her friend wasn't so one-sided after all. It was a long shot, but it was a shot nonetheless and Vinyl just wanted a chance to confess to Tavi in the best way she could.

The cab pulled up right as Tavi trotted into the Ponyville concert hall, a young stallion carefully toting the earth mare's cello. Vinyl paid the cabbie and galloped into the hall, snaking through the crowds to nab a seat at the very front, where Tavi couldn't miss her. Vinyl settled the gift in her lap, setting her hooves on it gently for good measure, and waited through dreary old stallions playing dreary old songs, all for the excitement of seeing Tavi's face light up when she saw her best mate in the audience.

* * *

Tavi sat and waited as ponies trickled out to perform and exit on the opposite site of the stage. She would be one of the last people to perform, and her nerves were wearing her thin. Finally, when it was just her and an old, grey stallion with large, spectacle glasses, Octavia was finally called out. Toting her cello very carefully, she strode out onto the stage to polite applause. She did a quick sweep of the crowd and nearly fell over and off the stage.

Vinyl was here.


	2. The Show Begins

**The Show Begins**

Tavi gaped at Vinyl for at least 10 seconds before finally snapping out of her stupor. She rose up, one hand on the neck of her cello, the other holding her bow up to the still strings. Taking a few deep breaths, she began to play, a loud, mournful tune, filled with enough emotion to wake up the crowd a bit from the previous performances. Octavia glanced up at the princesses to see Celestia and Luna smiling, regal as ever; Cadence sitting and listening with her eyes closed, one hoof on her pregnant belly, a smile smile playing on her lips; and Twilight, her hooves propped up on the banister, staring straight at her with wide eyes and a tiny grin that was growing steadily.

Filled with courage, Octavia began to play with renewed vigor, switching perfectly from her slow, sad hymn to a more upbeat, cheerful tune, which got most of the crowd hoof tapping and all of it grinning, glad to see a real performer, not one of the dreary old stallions they had been watching and listening to for the last hour or so.

Tavi was grinning as she played song after song, constantly being called for encore after encore, always looking at the Princesses to see if this was fine. Every time, Celestia would nod her on, a smile bright and clear as day resting on her lips.

But for most of the concert, Tavi had only eyes for Vinyl.

* * *

Vinyl was nodding her head sharply, back and forth to the beat of Octavia's music, her back right hoof tapping unconsciously to the rhythm of the music. She grinned up at Tavi as the earth mare played, putting her whole soul into her cello as her songs reverberated across the concert hall. She couldn't help but well up with pride for her friend every time she saw the Princesses sway and nod to the mare's music, Celestia and Luna trying to maintain their regal posture while Twilight simply forgot herself and danced and Cadence joined her, to the best of her ability. Her baby bump's getting pretty big, Vinyl noted absently before turning back to Octavia.

It hit Vinyl that Octavia had stopped playing. Ripples of concerned shout echoed from the crowd, but Tavi was staring, horrified, at the back of the audience, her bow hanging limply at her side, dangling from her hoof, her cello neck gripped tightly.

"What's going on?" Somepony yelled.

"C'mon, don't stop now!" Another hollered.

The audience was soon roaring with confusion, urging Octavia to continue to play, but Vinyl was scared. She'd never seen her friend look so horrified. She saw Tavi's mouth move, only slightly.

"What?" Somepony said, "What's she saying?"

The audience hushed, all eyes on Tavi, and that's when they heard it.

The moans.

* * *

Oh god, what _was_ that?

Octavia finally came to her senses, and the first thing she did was scream.

Somepony in the back screamed too, but for a much different reason.

The large mahogany double doors to the concert hall burst open, and shuffling ponies flooded in. But these weren't normal ponies.

Some were missing eyes, ears, limbs, there were pegasi with only one wing and unicorns with broken horns, most had a sickly green tint to their fur that you could only see if you got past the blood caked on their bodies. But the worst part wasn't how they looked, it was what they did when they got in the hall.

The first one was a large stallion, a single piece of hay still dangling from his mouth, one of his ears missing, bitten off, and chunks of flesh torn from his hide. Big Mac reared up and collided his hoof into the nearest pony's skull, a certain Carrot Top, and the mare went down screaming before Big Mac bludgeoned her with his powerful hooves, splattering her blood and leaning his head down to tear pieces of flesh and muscle from the now dead mares neck.

The rest of the audience was suddenly up and screaming, colliding into the cannibalistic ponies and falling at said ponies hooves. The others were galloping through a steadily growing pool of blood, wailing and sobbing, trying to escape.

The Show had begun.


	3. The Show Will Go On

**The Show Will Go On**

_"Octavia! Tavi! Octavia!_" Vinyl yelled out for her friend, desperately trying to climb up on to the stage to get Tavi's attention. Finally the earth mare tore her eyes from where the Princesses had vanished, teleported, _abandoned Ponyville_, and reached down a hoof to pull her friend up. The cannibalistic ponies roared and moaned, dragging themselves slowly and menacingly towards the panicked crowd.

"Oh god, look." Octavia rasped pointing her hoof out at Carrot Top. The long-dead pony was stirring, her blood-caked fur tinted sickly green, her eyes vague and unfocused. She moaned and shuffled towards the shocked and screaming crowd.

"They're Zomponies." Vinyl exclaimed, horrified, "But Zomponies are just fictional! For Celestia's sake, most of my _video games_ have them! How…?"

"There's no time to ask questions." Octavia said, suddenly very serious, "I suppose the transferring of the Disease or whatever is through bites, so we need to get out of here, get home, grab some supplies and weapons, and run." Octavia tore her eyes from the crowd and looked at Vinyl for the first time since pulling her up onto the stage, and her expression went from somber to confused in about .2 seconds, "Why do you have a box on your back?"

Vinyl looked back at the gift, "Eh, I'll explain it all when we get home. Long story."

* * *

Octavia and Vinyl slipped out the back door of the Ponyville concert hall just as the roof began to cave and collapse from Zompegasi falling onto said roof.

"Thank Celestia, I don't think they're fast or coordinated enough to fly anymore." Tavi gasped as she and Vinyl galloped through the thoroughly infested Ponyville, dodging past Zomponies and through alleyways, getting themselves thoroughly blood-soaked as they sprinted past Zoms feasting and even a young filly - Dinky, Vinyl would later say her name was, sorrow etched into her face - with her entire back torso and legs missing, her lower intestine half gone and dangling behind her, one eye collapsed in its socket and her horn completely ripped off, along with part of her skull, leaving a gaping hole in her face, and her jaw broken, her tongue left to loll out of the side of her mouth. She was dragging herself through the streets, moaning and leaving behind her a trail of blood that grew less and less thick as she bled out.

But then, Zomponies didn't seem to need blood in their bodies to survive.

Tavi looked from Dinky and finally focused ahead of her in time to see Vinyl spin around and ram her hooves into an oncoming Zom's face, splintering the beast's nose and skull with a resounding crack. Vinyl lifted a hoof and drove it one more time into the Zom's head, it's skull shattering entirely and brain collapsing into a pile of splattered mush.

Vinyl was panting as she picked up her fallen gift for Octavia, shaking off some of the blood, pain and horror etched into her face, and turned her eyes on a paralysed Tavi. The latter's eyes were wide, her ears back, one hoof risen up to her chest.

Vinyl's eyes remained fearful, "You have to destroy the brain. It's where the Disease hosts."

* * *

Vinyl felt horrified at her kill, but she knew it was the only way, and only the first of many. She turned from the stilled corpse and began to walk forward carefully, Tavi beside her. The unicorn mare didn't like her friend being afraid of her, but she'd take that over Tavi being killed, or worse, turning into a Zompony.

Vinyl would sooner die herself than let that happen.


	4. Not All can Act in the Show

**Not All can Act in the Show**

Vinyl and Octavia rushed into their little flat. Octavia shut and locked the door behind them while Vinyl ran into the kitchen to grab as much food as the two ponies would be able to carry, but not so much that it could weigh them down if they needed quick escape. Octavia ran around the flat and grabbed things that could be suitable weapons, finding a long, wickedly sharp letter opener; a dented metal baseball bat from Vinyl's playing days; a long sword they had bought for a cosplay, but had really only used for decoration; and Tavi's set of throwing knives from her college years.

The earth pony ran back to the kitchen and grabbed a frying pan and a few butcher knives for good measure to add to the pile of weapons that she laid on the counter. She divided the pile to play to each mares' strength before turning her head to assess the food they'd be taking.

Tavi was surprised how efficient and thoughtful Vinyl was being about the food. There were a few chocolate bars and small bags of chips, but there were also canned beans, packs of lettuce, carrots, and beets.

"This is all we can carry for now, but go ahead and have an apple before we leave. We'll need the stamina." Vinyl said, tossing Tavi said apple. Tavi caught it and took a bite, mumbling around the food, "Whaddabout you? Y'gonna eat, too?"

Vinyl grinned, "No worries, I just wanna check out my pile of weapons. This one, yeah?" She pointed to the pile containing the bat, frying pan, and sword. Tavi nodded and swallowed, "Yes, and if you like I can give you two of my kni-"

"No way, I couldn't throw those at Cerberus and hit it!" Vinyl said, laughing, "No, you should keep the knifey things. I'm cool with these." She picked up the sword and set it around her stomach, sheathed and within easy grasp if she should need it, and settled on her saddle bag (packed with two beets, three carrots, half the bag of lettuce, two small bags of chips and three chocolate bars; half of all rations) before tucking her bat and frying pan into the right bag, careful not to crush the chips.

"Hey Vinyl?"

"Yeah Tavi?"

"What was that box abo-"

_Thud thud thud._

Tavi's mouth clamped shut and both mares' eyes swiveled towards the door.

_Thud thud thud._

Tavi and Vinyl exchanged a brief glance, filled with fear and apprehension.

_Thud thud thud._

Somepony was _knocking_ on the door.

* * *

Vinyl motioned for Octavia to put on her saddle bag and grab her things before turning to the door and pulling out her bat with her magic. She wrapped tendrils of magic around the door lock, _click_, and then around the door, _ch-chick_, and counted to three, _one, two, three!_ Before flinging open the door and raising the bat, ready to swing.

"Vinyl? Tavi?"

Vinyl's bat fell to the floor as the unicorn mare raced to the door and dragged in Parish Nandermane, a periwinkle earth stallion with an aqua blue mane and a lyre cutie mark. He was covered in blood, and Vinyl was unsure if it was his or not, but she pushed him towards the kitchen and shut and locked the door again.

_"Parish?!"_ Vinyl heard Tavi scream, her knives tinkling as they hit the floor. Vinyl trotted into the kitchen to see Octavia with her hooves around Parish's neck, questions streaming from her mouth, "What are you doing here, how'd you escape, are you hurt, did they bite you Parish?"

Parish gently pushed Tavi away a few inches, resting his hooves on her shoulders and Tavi doing the same, and chuckled, "I came here to see if you were hurt, I escaped by running very fast, yes I am hurt, and well, yes, they bit me. How'd you know?

The kitchen fell deathly silent and Tavi pulled away from Parish's hooves and grabbed her throwing knives from the floor, suddenly fearful. Vinyl quietly picked up her bat with her magic from the front door and focused very hard to make it snake through the front hall quietly and hover through the kitchen door, around and in front of her, until finally…

_**THUMP.**_

* * *

**AN**: Parish Nandermane is a canon background pony, and played with Octavia at the Grand Galloping Gala.


	5. The First Actors Fall

**The First Actors Fall**

Parish Nandermane collapsed to the floor, a large welt beginning to form on the back of his head. Vinyl lowered her bat and let it fall with a small clink to the floor, her eyes blank. Tavi set down her knives and began to pace, her hooves clopping onto the floor incessantly. After a few minutes of this, Vinyl finally moaned, "Tavi, please…" The earth mare froze in mid-step and gently set down her raised hoof, looking embarrassed and fretful.

"Sorry Vinyl, it's just…. _What if he turns?_"

"Let's wait and see, and if he changes then we can have the upper hoof and take him out." Vinyl said after a short silence. Tavi nodded, concern written all over her face, before the two mares sat down a ways away from the unconscious Parish, their weapons in their grasps.

After a few minutes, Parish began to stir. The stallion shifted and, as his fur and mane moved, the mares noticed a sickly green sheen had spread all across his body. They raised their weapons and were on his before he could release his first , guttural, moan of thirst. Vinyl raised her bat and repeatedly bashed on Parish's head, cracking his skull and snout as blood and bits of brain splattered and flowed from the freshly Zomponified stallion's face; while Tavi used her knives to pin his hooves and neck down onto the floor, sinking the sharp tools deep into Parish's flesh and bones.. The kill only took a few seconds and, after cleaning their weapons, Octavia and Vinyl Scratch took up their saddlebags and a map, and trotted out their small flat door and into Ponyville, never to return to their old home again.

* * *

"So, Vinyl."

"Yeah, Tavi?"

"When are you going to tell me what that little box is about?"

Vinyl looked back into her left saddlebag where the small gift, still wrapped in its little bow tie and tag, and coughed awkwardly.

"Later, when the time's right."

"Okay, Vinyl."

* * *

By the time night finally fell, Tavi was blood drenched and exhausted. Right as the duo had escaped the buildings and alleys of Ponyville, they met a horde of at least 20 Zomponies, and had to bolt. They both knew that was way too many to fight at once and they didn't want to risk even a scratch before they understood more about the Disease, how it began, and how it was transmitted from pony to pony if not just by biting.

"Hey, Tavi, I think that's a river."

Octavia's head snapped up, her thirst burning in her throat, and she looked over at where Vinyl's hoof pointed. Off in the not so far distance was not only the aforementioned river, but what appeared to be a camp of pony survivors.

"Is that…?" Tavi rasped, her heart rising with hope for the first time since the concert that morning.

"Only one way to find out. But we can't just waltz in, especially not looking like this,-" Vinyl raised a hoof and gestured to the two mares' blood drenched formes, "-they'd kill us on the spot. No, let's aim for a few hundred yards over that way, clean up a bit in the river, get some water and refill the canteens, and then we can go see the camp."

Octavia nodded, pleased with the plan, and trotted over to the bank with Vinyl, glad she had her friend to help her through these Dark Times.

Vinyl sunk her hoof into the cool stream and nearly moaned with relief. She waded out into the water, slowly testing the ground to make sure she wouldn't slip in the fast currents. After her shoulders and back were submerged, she dunked her head under and rubbed at her hair with her front hooves. Once she felt satisfied and clean, she swam back up to the bank and shook herself dry, grinning at Octavia when she clambered out of the river and did the same. They shared a small bag of chips, refilled their canteens and drank several gulps from the river before putting their bags back on and slowly making their way over to the camp. They emerged from a small wood and Tavi gasped, her eyes wide and shocked.

What had just an hour or so before been a thriving survivors' camp was now a burning Zompony feeding grounds. Vinyl winced as she saw Bon Bon's entire front left leg ripped off at the shoulder, her mane torn and drooped, and her flank and stomach being devoured, all by a certain Zomponified Lyra Heartstrings. She tore her eyes away and cried out as the Zompegasus previously known as Blossomforth fell from the sky and into a burning tent with a resounding crash. She had obviously tried to escape in the air, but not before she had been infected, and had turned before she could get too far.

Vinyl turned from the screaming, moaning, burning crowd of ponies that lay not 200 yards away and looked at Tavi, and was shocked to see tears streaking down her face, the brown mare's eyes fraught with pain and fear. Vinyl couldn't stand to see her friend like this and reached out her hoof, pulling Octavia to her and wrapping her in a hug. Tavi clutched at Vinyl, sobbing, for some minutes before the white mare eventually had to gently push her away and look into her eyes, red staring into purple, and say, "We need to get out of here. Those Zoms are going to be spreading out soon to find their next meal, or maybe they'll even travel in a pack. I don't know, but I know we need to get the hay out of here and find somewhere to stay for the night, far away from here."

Octavia nodded.

After walking for another few hours (time was getting harder to tell already, they had to look and watch the moon for a while before realising it hadn't moved in ages. This confirmed what the two mares had already assumed; the Princesses had abandoned them.), Vinyl finally pointed to a high tree and suggested they rest up there for a while. After climbing up the tree and helping pull up Tavi, Vinyl offered to take the first watch. She climbed a few branches higher and settled herself to keep an eye out for any approaching Zomponies. They'd be safe if it was only a couple, but if it was a lot they'd have to decide to either stay hidden in the tree into the mob passed or jump down and make a run for it.

Both were very risky.

Tavi settled herself into a fork in two sturdy branches and curled up, wishing she'd had the foresight to bring a couple blankets. If the sun really never rose again, then she and Vinyl could only survive for a few weeks before they eventually froze or starved to death. Saying a silent prayer to Celestia, in which she begged the Sun Goddess to raise the sun the next day, Octavia laid back and dropped off to a dreamless sleep.


	6. The Show Can't End So Soon

**The Show Can't End So Soon**

The next time Octavia peeled her eyes open, it was to Vinyl gently shaking her awake.

"I'm sorry," the unicorn mare whispered, "but I'm so exhausted I'm about to fa-fa-fall out of this tree." Vinyl finished, trying and failing to stifle a yawn.

"It's okay, Vinyl, you need your rest. I'll take this watch." Octavie pulled herself up to where Vinyl had been sitting at looked out across the landscape, watched towns burn in the Endless Night, saw ponies falling from the skies to die or become Zompegasi. She bit back her tears, blinking rapidly, and turned her eyes down to watch Vinyl's breathing even out, her scrunched snout relax, her stomach move slowly, silently, up, down, up, down, up, down….

Tavi isn't sure when she fell asleep, she just knew she awoke once again to Vinyl shaking her awake and a massive bout of guilt.

"It's ok, Tavi, honestly, I don't blame you." Vinyl tried to comfort her friend, "I mean, we both lost friends and family but you've been hit harder than me, and you were exhausted."

"Thanks, Vinyl. I'll try to not do it again." Tavi smiled and wiped her hoof across her face, cleaning it of any remaining tears, "So, breakfast?"

Vinyl grinned, "Thought you'd never ask."

* * *

It's getting colder, Tavi thought, shivering in the bitter night air, what if the Princesses never lower the moon again? What if we freeze to death? Octavia shook herself and sidestepped so she'd be closer to Vinyl, desperate for some warmth. She couldn't help but wonder again what that little box Vinyl had held onto was all about, but didn't want to pester her friend. She'd already said she's tell Tavi when the time was right.

Whatever that meant.

Vinyl suddenly huffed and sat down, crossing her hooves in front of her for a moment before flinging them at the sky, "Oh c'mon Princess! For Celestia's sake, _raise the damn sun!"_

If it was just timing, coincidence, or more, very suddenly the moon began to move, incredibly fast. It soared across the sky and, as it neared the western horizon, suddenly Tavi pulled Vinyl's attention to the east horizon.

_Light._

_The Princesses were raising the sun._

Vinyl and Tavi danced and laughed, joyful to feel the heat radiating from their sun once again. They felt confident that, not only were the Princesses alive and well enough to do magic, but they hadn't abandoned them. Not yet, anyways.

Not quite yet.

Vinyl trotted next to Tavi by the edge of a forest, basking in the warm glow of daylight, and wondering why things had been so quiet? Like a jynx, suddenly a moan came from the trees and several Zomponies staggered out and lunged at Octavia. She whipped out her knives and, dodging past the Zom's attack, she slashed at the back of the neck where Vinyl had told her the brain stem was, splattering blood across her front and sending the Zompony to the ground.

Vinyl was suddenly at the throats of the second Zom, her sword flying through the air with a blue glow of magic holding it at the base, slashing the beast's head clean off its body with a sickening rrrip. After the first two fell, the two mares turned and lunged for the remaining 4, Tavi flinging a throwing knife at the first one and landing a direct hit in the beasts forehead, the knife sinking into the flesh and bone with a thunk. She then took a butcher's knife from her saddlebag and began to hack into the second Zom, sinking the blade into the Zompony's flesh and bone several time, blood running down the beast's face, until finally Octavia swing down her blade and broke through the thick Zom's skull, shattering its face and sinking her knife deep into the creature's skull, losing her grip on the blade as the beast collapsed. As Tavi yanked out the knives from each of her now dead zoms and cleaned the blades on the grass, she looked over to Vinyl as the mare took down the last of the Zoms.

Vinyl had utilised this opportunity to get more used to the sword, using it for the first kill before reverting back to her bat. Said sword was being pulled out of a Zom's head, and the bat still lay in what used to be a Zom's face, but was now just a beaten pulp of broken skull, blood, and brain. Octavia pulled the bat from the puddle of Zompony head and cleaned it off of most of its blood, handing it back to Vinyl after she had sunk the sword into the dirt and pulled it back out, cleansed of Zompony innards. Vinyl grinned and sheathed the sword, slipping her bat back into the saddlebags that lay snugly on her back.

"We make a good team."

"I think I love you."

_"What?"_

"Hm?"

"Did you say something?"

"No, I don't think so…"

"Oh, uhh, okay…"

"I'm getting really sick of this really fast." Vinyl snapped as she slammed her frying pan into a Zompony skull with a loud, echoing **CLANG!**, cracking the skull and sending bits of bone flying into the grass. The beast fell and a sudden silence took over the area once more.

"This thing is way too loud." Vinyl glared at the pan before shoving it back into her bag.

"I'm sorry, I should have considered the noise before I picked it out." Tavi apologised, frowning and looking around fretfuly for more of the Zoms.

"S'not your fault." Vinyl said softly, her hard, irritable expression falling off her face, replaced by a soft smile, "At least the thing's powerful!"

"Yes, that I did take into account." Octavia grinned at set her knives back into her bag, walking up and settling herself at a smooth pace, stride-for-stride with Vinyl Scratch.

"I'm exhausted."

"Me, too."

"I can take first watch."

"Really?"

"Yes, Vinyl, really."

"Haha, sorry. Thanks."

"No problem."

Vinyl sat in the fork of a tree branch for several minutes, fretting about the little box that lay in her saddlebag. When would the right time be? How would she find a romantic atmosphere during the end of the world? Sighing she pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind and tried to get some sleep.

She really would need it.


End file.
